The Only Family That Will Last Forever with Pastor Rick Warren

hello Saddleback Have I Told You Lately That I Love You if you'll take out your message notes we're going to continue in the series we've been in now it's a 12-part series living in the goodness of God we're looking at the most important or famous chapter in the Bible Psalm 23 The Lord is my shepherd it's only six verses but it's taking us 12 sessions to get through it because there's so many Rich 12 different metaphors 12 different pictures of the way God is good to us and today we come to the fifth verse Psalm 23:5 and we're just looking at one phrase where he says talking about the goodness of God you anoint my head with oil now what in the world does that mean you anoint my head with oil this was written 3,000 years ago how in the world could it possibly have any relevance to my life today and the goodness of God well you got to understand what anointing is what does it mean mean to be anointed well that depends on who's doing the anointing if you had your nextd door neighbor come over to you tomorrow to your house and walk in and they had some oil and they anointed you and they said uh I now Proclaim you uh the king of the universe would that change your life no why because they don't have any authority to do anything about it they could say you're the king of rock and roll or whatever uh and it wouldn't make any difference because it depends on who's doing the anointing now I've putting down a definition here and there's anointed by God which is internal and there's anointed by people which is external let me explain this so we can unwrap it and see all the benefits to your life anointed by God is something that happens internally and I've written here when God's holy spirit gives you Insight or ability this is Supernatural Insight ability or stamina or authority or protection that you don't normally have in order to do a job that he God has chosen you to do that's anointing when you are anointed by God God gives you supernaturally uh ability that you don't have or Insight wisdom you don't have stamina to to hold up under something you don't have Authority or even protection that you don't normally have in order to do a job that God has chosen you to do that's called anointing in the Bible now anointing by people is something different it's an outward symbol of the inward thing we just talked about it's the it's the external symbol and anointing by people means when somebody prayerfully applies some oil uh to your skin as an outward sign of what God is doing inside you now God often does this he gives us an external symbol of an internal process the Lord's Supper communion is an external symbol of uh the death and crucifixion of Jesus Christ this is my body and this is my blood using uh you know Bread and Wine crackers and juice using symbols that say this is an outward sign of an inward spiritual truth baptism is an outward sign of an inward truth it it says I have died to my old way of living we put them under the water we bring them back up and I'm beginning a brand new life it's a new life I've been born again not turn over a new Leaf I got a new life all my sins have been forgiven washed away okay that's an outward symbol baptism of an inward commitment now neither communion nor baptism save you it it's like I call him the wedding ring of the Christian Life this ring was given to me many years ago 42 years specifically when I said two words at a ceremony that changed my life two words I do when I said those two words I had no idea what I was doing when I said I do and the rest of my life I'm working out the implications of two words I do and Kay will often tell me this is in the fine print of I do and I go oh that's included too yeah okay I did and I still do she gave me this ring now I could lose this ring and I'd still be married Kay would be upset and I would actually too but this doesn't make me married it's just a symbol when someone anoints you with oil there's nothing mystical or magical uh properties in the oil it's simply like the water in baptism is not a special kind of water it's just water and an oil in anointing is just olive oil but it is the symbol of something far more significant and the faith in the fact that God has anointed you on the inside now in the Bible uh olive oil specifically is used as a symbol of a lot of things it's a symbol of God's spirit the holy spirit it's a symbol of God's presence it's a symbol of God's blessing on your life when someone is Anointed with oil it's a symbol that God approves of you it's a symbol of God's presence of God's protection of God's promises it's a symbol of prosperity uh there are a lot of different uh meanings to uh being Anointed with oil it's Comfort it's healing it's Joy the Bible talks about the oil of Joy the oil of gladness the oil of Salvation the oil of uh deliverance and so it's a symbol of many different things now in in the Bible in the Old Testament the old part of the Bible uh only three kinds of people got Anointed with oil you had to be a priest you had to be a prophet or he had to be king and and even today kings are still Anointed with oil even thousands of years later as a symbol of God's blessing God's approval God's giving them Authority and things like that uh and the only people who could actually do it were the priest nobody else was allowed to anoint in the Old Testament in fact you weren't even allowed to have anointing oil in your home it was supposed to be that sacred but when Jesus Christ came and died on the cross he broke up the old system and the Bible says the veil in the temple was torn in half which means you can go directly to God now you don't need a priest in the Old Testament you had to go through a priest to get to God you had to pray through a priest you had to have him confess your sins for you you confess to the priest they confess to God you don't have to go to a priest anymore you don't have to confess to a priest you can confess directly to God you don't have to pray through a priest anymore you you can pray directly to God that's what Jesus did on the cross in fact the Bible says this may shock you if you're a follower of Jesus you're a priest it says it over and over and over it's called the priesthood of the believer at Saddleback we use the phrase every member is a minister it's the same thing that you don't need somebody between you and God you now because of what Jesus did have direct access and because you you may have never thought about this are a priest whether you're a man or a woman old or young if you're a follower of Christ you have the authority to anoint people with oil you have the authority to pray for people's healing you have the authority to do all the things that the priest used to do in the Old Testament now to understand what it means to live an anointed life and that's what we're going to look at you you anoint my head with oil what is the meaning of that what is the blessing of being anointed by God um we need to go back to the very basic you're not an accident you were made by God and for God till you understand that life won't make sense we've talked about this many times God has a plan for your life a purpose for your life and the significance and meaning of your life comes from figuring out God's plan on your life God has a purpose and the Bible says before you even born God planned what he wanted to do with your life it's called your calling your calling and the word in in uh in Latin uh is C or Greek is Calo means to call out and we get our V in in Latin which is um we get vocal vocalize voice it is God calling you did you know that you're called by God to do something with your life you may be called to be a marine biologist but it's a calling you may be called to be a taxi driver or a banker or an investor or a homemaker or a teacher or a nurse or an artist or a musician every body who's alive has a calling by God on their life now many people miss that calling and they go off and do their own thing and that's why they're unhappy that's why they're unsatisfied it's why they're unfulfilled because you'll never be fulfilled doing your plan you're only going to be fulfilled if you figure out what is God calling me to do some people think that God only calls missionaries and Priests and you know nuns and and and pastors and people who do Church work no no no no no every body has a calling on their life you could be called to be a businessman you could be called to be a politician you could be called to be a salesperson and what God calls you to do listen he wants to anoint you to do let me show you some Verses first look up here on the screen the Bible says this in the book of Ephesians that God made us what we are he wired you you like sales you like math you like music you like uh uh instrumentation you like organizing your administrator God made you what you are and in Christ Jesus God created us each of us to do good works which he planned in advance for us to live our lives doing do you realize that before you even born God planned the calling on your life he planned the purpose on your life now that's very very important and this is where fulfillment and meaning and purpose come from but here's the catch you cannot fulfill your calling the way God wants you to on your own power you need what is called God's anointing and anointing is the power and the insight and the energy and all those things that I mentioned earlier that allow you to do what God wants you to do if God has a job he's going to give you the ability uh to do it and so what I want to do real quickly is summarize the Entre entire Bible uh what it has to say about anointing an anointed life in about six statements can you write fast okay this is this is a cliff notes on the Bible on anointing so take your notes out this is very important because until you understand your calling and until you get your anointing you're not going to be fulfilled in life okay number one here are six things I've learned about God's anointing on my life number one when God appoints me he anoints me that's the first thing we learn when God appoints me he anoints me God never ask you to do something without providing what you need to do it when he gives you assignment he's going to give you the empowerment when he gives you a plan he's going to give you the power to do it when he gives you a strategy he's going to give you his Spirit God's anointing comes with God's appointing and the anointing that God wants to give you in your life new power new Energy new insight only happen when you start doing using it for what he wants to give it to you for God has promised to help you out if God calls you to do something and you're scared to death you feel incompetent or incapable or inadequate God says that's okay look at these verses 1 Thessalonians 524 the one who calls you that's God is faithful God is faithful and he will do it what does that verse mean whatever God calls you to do he's going to give you the ability to do he's going to help you do it he's going to put his spirit in you and if God says to do it you can count on his anointing the faithful the one who calls you he's going to do it a good example of this would be when God gave the very first assignment to his very first followers the the first 12 disciples look up here on the screen Acts 1:8 says this you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you that's anointing and you will be my witnesses to the ends of the Earth now that when he Jesus gave that assignment to the disciples was an impossible assignment there was no way they could possibly go to the ends of the Earth there were no Planes Trains automobiles no ocean bearing vessels how in the world are they going to get to Australia from the Middle East how are they going to get to South America or North America it was physically impossible God will often give you an assignment that physically looks impossible but he says I'm going to make it possible and we're going to figure out a way to do this and I'm going to empower you so God says my appointment uh comes or my assignment comes with an anointing that goes goes right along with it okay number two here's the second thing we learned God's anointing makes me a better person if you think you're good now it's nothing comp compared to what you could be with God's anointing on your life God's anointing transforms you it changes you from the inside out it gives you abilities you did not have on your own now again there are many many examples of this when somebody is Anointed as a king or Prophet or whatever uh that all of a sudden they got new abilities and their life was turned around and changed because of the anointing here's a good example 1st Samuel chapter 10 Samuel is a prophet and the first king of Israel is a guy named Saul Saul felt very inadequate he thought I I could never be a king and in verse one of chapter 10 it says this then Samuel took oil and poured it on Saul's head and he said God has anointed you there see this outward symbol of an inward commitment God has anointed you to be the leader of his people now Saul is Anointed but he still doesn't believe it he's still insecure and so Samuel goes I'm going to give you several signs and over the next several vers he says this is going to happen and this is going to happen and this is going to happen and then down in verse six he says here's the thing that's going to confirm your calling verse six of 1st Samuel 10 God's spirit will come on you in power and you're going to speak like a prophet he said you're actually going to be walking with some prophets when this happened some spiritual men and he says you will be changed into a different person Circle that you're going to be changed into a different person and after this happens you whatever you do whatever you think is best do whatever you think is best because God will be with you now what is this verse teaching us that when God actually anoints your life when you receive God's anointing on your life it changes you you see how does it change me you're going to be more competent you're going to be more confident and you're going to be more calm you're going to be more confident about what God's called you to do you're going to be more competent about what God's called you to do and you're going to be more calm about it when you are worried when you're nervous about your job about your calling about your vocation then guess what you don't have the anointing of God on your life at that moment you don't feel competent you don't feel confident and you don't feel calm when God comes into your life it changes you and all of a sudden you got a whole lot more confidence about what you know you're supposed to do with your life okay number three third thing we learn in the Bible is that God's anointing makes difficult tasks easier this is a good one it makes the difficult tasks in your life easier because now you're not just doing it on your own power you're doing it on God's power and the difference between serving God and your power versus serving God and his power is night and day let me show you the difference between an anointed life and an unano life look up here on the screen Ephesians chapter 3: 16 says this from his unlimited resources God will give you mighty Inner Strength through his holy spirit Circle Mighty Inner Strength now my resources are limited my energy is limited my knowledge is limited my wisdom is limited my talent is limited and so is yours but God is not and when you have God's anointing on your life he puts Mighty strength in you that you didn't know you had you can handle things better you can last longer you can go farther because you have God's anointing on your life how do you know when you don't have God's anointing on your life you're tired all the time you're tired all the time why because you're trying to solve your problems you're trying to live your life you're trying to fulfill your purpose on your own power now he says God will give you mighty strength through his holy spirit one of the holy spirit's job is to anoint you that's his job to give you the power and the energy and the wisdom and the resources and all the stuff you need to get it done done to get done what God put you on this planet to get done Philippians 4:13 is one of those famous verses in the Bible you could probably quote it I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need now if you don't have if you're not dependent on Christ you're depending on yourself and you're going to end up fatigued let me ask you a very personal question are you trying to do everything you need to do in life based on adrenaline or based on anointing because your adrenaline runs out and you get tired and you get fatigued and you get worn out and you want to give up when you're walking in the anointing when God's power is flowing through you it's Limitless it is Limitless it gives you Supernatural energy I can do everything with the help of Christ I wonder what you're filling in that blank I can do everything with the help of my medication I can do everything with the help of my team I can do everything with the help of my uh Bank passport and my savings account no no there's only one thing that doesn't run dry every other well in your life is going to run dry if you ask or expect other people to meet needs in your life that only God can meet you're going to be disappointed they're going to be frustrated and you're going to have conflict because you they nobody could possibly meet all the needs in your life your wife can't your husband can't your best friend can't your boyfriend can't nobody can meet all your emotional physical spiritual needs only God can and if you look to him he says then I will give you my anointing I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need by the way do you know what Christ means that word Christ some people think Christ is Jesus last name Jesus first name Christ last name no no do you even know you may have been a Christian 30 years do you don't even know what Christ means it's the Greek word for anointed one that's what Christ means anointed one it is the anointed one who gives you your anointing that gives you the power to do all the things God wants you to do with your life Christ means anointed one by the way do you know what the word anointed one is in Hebrew the other the other language in the Bible it's the word messiah messiah means anointed one so Christ and Messiah are the exact same word just in Hebrew or in Greek and he says it is the Messiah it is the anointed one who's going to give you the anointing to get done everything you need to get done in life that God wants you to do now God doesn't give you his anointing to do things you want to do he gives you the things he puts you on he gives you the ability to do what he wants you to do okay number four and now let's review when God appoints me he anoints me God's anointing makes me a better person and it makes difficult tasks easier number four God's anointing makes the impossible possible because God can do stuff you would never would able be able to do and I would never be able to do this is a big deal because in your business you're going to come up in against insurmountable problems you're going to need the anointing of God when you're going to have problems in your marriage that seem insurmountable you're going to have problems with your health that seem insurmountable what do you what do you depend on there not your own power you depend on God's anointing look at these verses Luke 18:27 Jesus says what is impossible for men is possible with God I can't do everything but God can ephes iians 3:20 God's power at work within us is able to accomplish infinitely more than we could ever dare to ask for or even imagine now I don't know about you I'm a pretty big dreamer nobody's ever accused me of being a small thinker or a small dreamer and yet this verse says God says to me hey Rick think of the greatest thing I could do in your life just blow the top off what what are you afraid to even ask what are you afraid to even imagine what's the greatest thing you could imagine happening in your life and God says I can top that I can top that I'm I'm better I'm bigger my anointing can do more than you even think what's the greatest thing you'd like to see done in your life you go man I I'm even afraid to even imagine it I'm afraid to even uh think of it it would might be too over think of the biggest thing God could do in life and God Says with my anointing I can do bigger than that he says God's power at work within us is able to accomplish infinitely more than we could ever dare to ask or even imagine for our families for your business for your career for your education for your dream God's anointing makes the impossible possible number five fifth thing that we learn in in the scriptures is this that God anoints my life to bless others God blesses you not just so you can feel good God blesses you so you could be a blessing to other people now we've done an entire series on this at Saddleback where we talked about we're blessed to be a blessing God doesn't give you money Talent good looks abilities opportunities networks none of those things are giv you simp simply for your benefit God says I want you to be a blessing to other people now you get blessed in the same time there's no doubt about it you're going to enjoy the blessing of being a channel but when you're a Channel of God's power and blessing to other people it it blesses everybody you're not the only one who gets blessed God doesn't give you his anointing just so you can feel good God gives you his anointing to help others and when you do it helps you now in Isaiah Isaiah was a prophet in the Old Testament in chapter 61 Isaiah says I know I'm anointed by God and he comes up with a list of six different kinds of people in pain and he goes I know this is what God's calling me to do that I'm to use my anointing just not to make a name for myself I God is giving me this anointing to help six kinds of people in pain let me read it to you Isaiah says the spirit of the Lord is on me and he has anointed me there's that phrase you might Circle it he has anointed me to bring good news to the suffering and The Afflicted that's number one number two he's anointed me to comfort the Brokenhearted number three he's anointed me to announce freedom to people who are captives they you know they're they're in a prison maybe a self-imposed prison of resentment or an addiction or a compulsion or or or a fear or an anx anxiety a lot of people are in self-imposed prison he says he's anointed me to bring good news of suffering uh Comfort the Brokenhearted a lot of broken hearts to announce freedom to people who are enslaved to an addiction or habit he said he's anointed me to Open the Eyes of the blind what's he talking about there help people see stuff that they've never seen before help them see God maybe they've never seen God in their life they they don't even know see God at work he sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of God's favor to them has come and he says in number six he says he has anointed me to tell all who mourn and everybody has losses in life you're going to have them if you haven't already you'll have major losses in your life which means you're going to mourn he says God sent me to use the anointing I've got to tell these people who are who've had a loss that God will give Beauty for Ashes Joy instead of mourning and pray instead of heaviness th those who are depressed what an amazing God we have that God is interested in your emotional needs God is interested in your hurts in your habits in your Hang-Ups God is interested in all the stuff that pulls you down he says when when you get Anointed God wants you to help other people in pain and when you do that God helps you in your pain he helps you in your pain by the way this passage Isaiah 61 1 is the text that Jesus read for his very first public sermon publicly recorded sermon it's in Luke chapter 4 Jesus goes back to his hometown of Nazareth he picks up the scroll of the Old Testament he opens to this passage Isaiah 61 and Jesus reads it and says the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's appointed me to preach good news to the suffering and The Afflicted and the poor and he sent me to comfort the Brokenhearted and he reads this he rolls the scroll up he goes over and he sits down shortest sermon on record certainly not one of mine and he sits down and he says today this passage is fulfilled right in front of you I am the answer I'm the Savior I'm the guy who's come to comfort The Afflicted and the Brokenhearted and the people who are enslaved to habits and the people who don't know how to get out of debt and the people who are blind and can't see the way out of where they are and all these different things Jesus says I'm it I'm it but he says I'm anointed to do this let me show you on the screen Acts chapter 10 here's another verse God anointed Jesus with the holy spirit's Power by the way there's a trinity in one sentence father son Holy Spirit in one sentence God anointed Jesus with the holy spirit's power and he Jesus went around doing good that's the purpose of an anointing to make the world a better place when you get anointed you start helping other people you get blessed by it but you're helping other people and he went around doing good and healing people who were beaten down by the devil and when you get anointed guess what God's going to do that with you yeah you you you're a priest you're Anointed God wants to work in your life this same way way to go around doing good healing people who've been beaten up by by the devil number six the sixth thing we learn about anointing as I summarize all the Bible is that for every new challenge I need a fresh anointing for every new challenge I need a fresh anointing anointing by the holy spirit in your life cannot be stored up you can't go oh yeah I remember way back in like 1992 I went to a service and oh man I really felt close to God I got a quiver in my liver and and I I I even cried and I I like ooh it was like an emotional experience and you go you're still living on that thing that doesn't work that way you can't store it up and God's anointing his Blessing on your life is kind of like Mana that bread that God fed him in the wilderness for 40 years it only lasted a day and then it spoiled because God wants you to depend on him every day for his anointing every day for his power in your life it the prayer is not to pray give us this day our monthly bread no it's it's daily he gives you just enough for that day and tomorrow you're going to need a fresh anointing and the day after that you're going to need a fresh anointing and the day after that you're going to need some fresh oil in in in your lamp you're going to need fresh and by the way you can lose the anointing we've all seen people who are greatly used by God and they're on fire and they're gifted and they're talented and then two years later they're on the Shelf doing nothing how did in the world did they lose God's blessing on their life how did they lose the anointing on their life you can lose it lots of ways by taking it for granted by not depending on God by not spending time alone with God every day you can lose the anointing through Pride through greed you can lose the anointing by refusing to forgive somebody you need to forgive you can lose it from Gossip you can lose it from uh uh out of- control anger you can lose it from all kinds of different things that you let become a God in your life that you begin to idolize and all of a sudden that person or that thing or that job or that money is more important than God and you could lose God's blessing on your life history is littered with people who had God's anointing and God's blessing and were seeing success and results in their life and then all of a sudden bam they're nothing because they they took it too lightly and too Loosely for every new challenge I need a fresh anointing and that anointing that you had last year or 10 years ago or at a youth camp it's not any good for today it it doesn't do any it doesn't do you any good today you need a fresh refilling God wants to fill you with his power with his love with his spirit with his grace you know the problem is we all leak you get filled but you leak and you can lose the passion and lose the power and lose the grace and lose your vision and lose your passion like a balloon that's been blown up for a birthday party and 3 days later it's losing it all and going flat over in the corner and we leak so you need a fresh filling of God's spirit on a regular basis you cannot handle today's problems with yesterday's anointing and you certainly can't handle the problems you're going to have tomorrow and next week and next year with yesterday's anointing you got to stay in touch with God so he's filling you constantly with his his grace with his love with his power you say well how do I do that H how do I stay filled H how do I how do I get a fresh anointing well Hosea chapter 10 is one example verse 12 Hosea 10:12 says this s new seeds of righteousness that's a metaphor by the way for prayer and you'll reap the fruit of my love and break up your old hardened ground he's talking about if you're a farmer you got some some ground out there hadn't been plowed in years it's gotten hard it's gotten dry it's gotten crusty and maybe your heart has gotten cold and dry and crusty and you don't feel the joy of the Lord anymore and you don't feel close to God anymore and you your heart heart is hard toward other people and your heart is hard even maybe toward God he says you need to do a little plowing you need to do a little Spade work break up the the hardened the fallow ground the hardened ground in your life it's time to turn to me and seek the Lord and then he says I'll come and I'll shower new blessings that's anointing I'll shower new blessings on you how does God turn hard ground into soft ground so something can Sprout from it he sends a storm you got any storm going on in your life God may be breaking up the dirt clouds in your heart the Harden soil that's gotten dry and Barren and can't bear fruit of anything now in that passage he says four things he says you want you want my anointing CU you got to pray SE seow the seeds of righteous spend some time talking to God and he says um you need to break up the hardened ground that's that's humility and confession to God I haven't been close to you I haven't been connected you like I used to be uh he says turn back to God that's clear he says seek God that's clear and he says as a result I'll come and shower new blessing new anointing on your life how do you get God's anointing back in your life or maybe for the very first time the number one way you get it listen you ask you ask the Bible says you have not because you ask not you do not have James 4:2 you do not have because you don't ask God if you don't have God's power in your life if you don't have God's blessing and anointing in your life you're not waiting on God he's waiting on you you just haven't asked when was your last time you asked God to make your career successful and then you said I'll do it anyway you tell me to do it when was the last time you asked God to make your marriage or your relationships or your friendship successful and then you said God I'll do it anyway you tell me to do it even if it doesn't make sense when was the last time you said God my finances are so messed up they suck and I need you to bless my finances and I'm willing to do the way you tell me to do it that is to break up the claws and to say God you have not because you asked not I'm asking you right now you see God wants to bless your life in ways you have not even imagined if God were to show you what he could have done with your life to this point but hadn't been able to you'd be sad but if God were to show you what he could do with the rest of your life however many years you got left would blow your mind if you just say God I'm asking for your anointing I want you to I want to do it your way we're not waiting on God for a Revival of our hearts he's waiting on us Psalm 84:1 says this look up here on the screen the Lord generously gives by the way God is the most generous person in the universe and he teaches us to give because he's generous the Lord generously gives us his favor favor is another word for anointing it means his Blessing his favor his grace his anointing the Lord generously gives us his favor when you have the favor of God you're a favorite God says she's my favorite have you ever felt that have you ever felt the favor of God in your life I have and there's nothing compared to it when you know God has shown favor on you and you go I'm a favorite of God I'm a friend of God I don't deserve it but it's just God's grace he says the Lord generously gives us his favor and honor God wants to affirm you God wants to applaud you in front of other people favor and honor no no good thing will he withhold from those who live right he said there's nothing that's good for you that I'll hold back anything you could possibly think of that would be good for you I'm going to give it it's all there it's all yours I I looked up that word all it means all no good thing will God hold back from you if you will just trust him and live in his anointing now in the last couple minutes want to get real practical and talk to you about God's anointing in two very specific areas your business and your body in other words your career and your health now you might write this down that when God anoints your business it brings success when God anoints your business it brings success I could give you a hundred examples out of the Bible of this but let me just give you one Genesis 39:2 talks about Joseph who was a businessman and it says because the Lord was with Joseph that phrase was with Joseph he is under the anointing and blessing of God it says he was greatly blessed so that everything he did succeeded you might underline that everything he did succeeded now let me ask you how many of you would like that to be true in your career that every single thing you did SU seated can I see your hands okay oh some of you don't want that let me try that again how many of you would like to be known that everything you did in life succeeded yeah that ought to be unanimous and where does that come from it comes from the anointing of God now I want to give you a current example David Green a dear friend of mine David and Barbara green are the founders of Hobby Lobby probably one of the most successful business stories in American history from nothing a garage to a multi-billion dollar company and an amazing thing but not just that Hobby Lobby is probably the single most generous business in America uh they give away half of their income half of of their corporate income and uh David Green has just written a new book it's called giving it all away and getting it all back again because you can't outgive God the way of living generously uh we we sold out in the first service of this book but we got a few more for this service and I want uh you to give let's stand and give David Green a warm Saddleback welcome great all right thanks glad you're here all right have a seat now David's written this incredible book and I really want to encourage you to to go on Amazon and get it if you're a businessman don't walk run to your computer and and order this book because it's not only a clear example of how to be a Christian and lead a business that impacts people for Christ but it's also just filled with Flatout good business sense and and business wisdom and uh David I want to I I've read through I've got all these notes I've taken quotes out of your book I'm going to read you some quotes and you can talk about them all right sound okay um okay first let's talk about God's calling because I talked about that earlier that God anoints and blesses people who accept God's call a lot of people think that calling only God only calls missionaries and pastors and and things like that but you were clearly called to be a businessman and God's anointing has been on your business obviously you're doing what God made you to do how did that happen how did you hear God's call well what happened to me is unfortunately my mother and dad were pastors and they didn't understand that okay uh they didn't understand that that I could be a businessman yeah and so they wanted all their six children to be pastors and missionaries so you're the black sheep they got five out of six but I yes I'm the black sheep and I felt I didn't have a calling on my life my my brothers they were called to Ministry and pastors and so I didn't have a calling so why did God not call me and so it took me a while to really know that not only am I called to be a a retailer but I'm also anointed very often I tell my wife I go to work I just sense God's anointing on my life he gives me wisdom I think he does that for all of us when we're working as unto him exactly and so I know today because of a lot of different Miracles that we've done in in which God has spoken to us to give to certain things and we see Miracles that I know for sure that I'm called to be a merchant yeah well one of the Miracles of course of Hobby Lobby is just exponential growth how you've just over the years exploded you know store after store after store God blesses and God anoints people who put him first you you talk about this in the book seek ye first the kingdom of God and you actually mentioned three areas where Hobby Lobby gives honor to God and he say uh with employees with ethics and with the government talk about that okay with employees I think that we're required by God to take care of our people and to serve them we feel like we're not they're not serving us we're serving them and how can we better serve you and because of that we don't want them working long hours we care about our fam so we want to care about their families and that's why we're open 66 hours a week closed on Sunday closed at 8:00 66 hours a week nobody of any size is open 66 hours a week but it we also uh we also pay $15.7 C minimum wage that's the lowest wage that's the lowest for fulltime let all go to work for Hobby Lobby all right now think about this the government's trying to raise the minimum wage to S or8 $9 so like they've been at $15 for for some time and 40 it's amazing that yeah 15 we got to 15 and then we've been trying to keep up with cost of living so it's, 1570 now we want to keep that going now what about um what about company ethics how how do you honor God in the ethics of your business I think all of us as businessmen we come up to situations where we have to make decisions that's going to cost us money to do the right thing yeah and I can name you a lot of different areas one of them cost $6 million that if I had done I could save that money sh off the exactly but but I I think that we lost that $6 million in one case there's a lot of other cases that I can give you but I think by giving that thing up God blesses us at a much much much greater rate so if we're trying to bless ourselves I'm not sure how much God's going to bless us but when we try to do what's right in business I think God will bless us in doing that there's a guy in this church who is ah head of a major business in Orange County and uh he was number two and the boss asked him to do something unethical and he refused he got fired and he got then later hired by the competition and a year later that competition bought the first and he was in charge of both companies so I'm going to go aren't you glad you had ethics and you had integrity and you stood there okay what about uh with the dealing with the government well in one company in one country we're in we were in a country where that we owned a business there and we were paying our taxes our employees told us you shouldn't be paying that much taxes cuz no one does it they just send some to the government and so there I arrest people equivalent came in and said you're paying too much taxes and we said uh no we're paying what we should pay paying to Caesar what is Caesar's but what happened is they wanted us not to pay so that we would have to give them money under the table oh and that's what's wrong with that country anyway it's just full of corruption but we said no we're going to do exactly what we're supposed to do and pay government what we should well there's a good example because proverb says that the person who asks for a bribe or the person who gives a bribe God is not going to bless so that's a good example all right you spend a lot of time obviously your book is called giving it all away you talking about generosity uh as I said Hobby Lobby is probably the most generous corporation uh in America uh I've said many times to our people that there are more promises in the Bible about generosity than any other thing if you want God's blessing on your life learn to be generous time money and energy everything like that um let me read some quotes from from your book and then you talk about them um this is a direct quote from from David at the core of any meaningful Life and Legacy has to be the vision for generosity an understanding of what it means to be a blessing to others first generosity has a starting point and second generosity depends not on how much money you have but on the posture of your hearts talk about that you know Christ died for us he gave everything to us and I can't fathom how that we can go through life and be satisfied and God fulfill in our lives without being generous and because he he what he did for us we should do the same thing and so from our standpoint we just don't know what to do other and by the way there's just so much joy in giving we get so much joy you talk a lot about that being a cheerful giver why is that important well uh it's just there is joy and doing things that you know is going to do things for eternity you know we do a lot of things it's just not going to matter later but when you're doing something that you know is going to bless people and and people come to know Christ there is Joy like no other way yeah a guy told me one time he said Pastor Rick I believe you ought to give till it hurts I said I don't I said I believe you ought to give till it feels good because there is joy in giving now here's an interesting line I quoted you in the book he said you said 90 is greater than 100 what do you mean by that well we learned that from my parents that were pastors we would watch them for instance and they would see people come and uh back then in the 40s and 50s a lot of your tithe was things out of their garden and they would give us 10% of their garden and I would watch my mom and dad they wanted to pay of their increase they weren't legalistic but they loved to give and so they did that and then I watched how God blessed our family yeah so so if they got a b a a bag of 10 Tomatoes they'd give a tomato away 10% well what they would yes the farmers and our members but then we would write down and we receive that and pay we we just saw for instance we grew up with six children and not a single prescription all the time I was growing up not even an aspirant so much as W because I think that's one of the blessings that we get by tithing I think the least blessings we can get from tithing is more money or money now God knows what we need but a lot of times he gives us in our tithing much much greater things than just Financial things well God clearly says in the word that 10% belongs to him if you don't give it to God you're not going to get to use it any anyway it's going to be used in some other way because it'll be taken from you the Bible calls it the devour will take it away um your generosity this is important is not just personal your family givs but it's also corporate so what does that mean and how how do you guys do that at Hobby Lobby well I started out by the by as soon as we started our company we always paid ties from the time my wife and I got married and then we started real early in our business started paying ties and then God we saw God blessing us so we wanted to give of course tithing to me is like training wheels that's it training wheels minimum Yeah it's you're not being generous but when you do tithe you see God blessing and then it takes you to another level so we took another level and so we caught ourselves saying oh you can't outgive God and so God just said well you really haven't tried and so uh so we we came up with an idea that how can we outg give God and so we came up with the largest amount we ever gave and then we said 6 months later we're going to double it and in in 18 months we're going to go three times not this is exponential yes and we looked at it in five and six years and we all the family says there's absolutely no way but that was 18 years ago and we're ahead of it so we just amazing that's amazing we just decided to give half of our earnings yeah and so so today 50% of the earnings that's right you're you're you're giving away that's right that that is amazing um and we don't say that for our Glory we give that to say look what God has done you know our testimony of how Kay and I started giving 10% our first year of marriage and every year we would raise it until we're now at 91% giving away and and living on nine we didn't tell anybody about for over 30 years because I wasn't doing it for there I was doing it to honor God and watch his Blessing on my life watch his anointing uh what about this where you where you said um I've discovered the the timing of generosity reveals your heart to God what do you mean by that well I think I mean by that is uh sometimes God speaks to our heart and we need to know the timing of it and we need to respond to God we need to pray and seek God's Will and what he would ask us to do and be generous as he and he speaks to us when he knows that we're going to give and we have a heart to give because it all starts with a heart yeah well and it really goes back to how much do I trust God uh because here's a good quote everybody wants to receive a miracle this is from his book everybody wants to receive a miracle but nobody wants to be in a position to receive it so it is with learning the joy of giving we want to experience the joy without taking the step of Faith to get there that's correct and sometimes it takes a step of faith I had a time when God asked me to give $30,000 and I didn't have it yeah and and so I said when we were real early on in our business and so I said well I know he's saying this so I'm going to give 7,500 postdated Che and I'm going to send it away four times it posted and all the checks went through but I think God said you know what I think I can trust you if you will give when you don't have it you're going to give when you do have it so I think that was a test that God gave us yeah I was talk about the difference between giving by reason and giving by Revelation giving by reason I look at what I've got and go what's the reasonable amount I can give anybody can do that you don't have to have a Believer be a believer to do that anybody can give by reason oh I got that much money I can give afford to give that much giving by Revelation saying God how much do you want want to give through me and sometimes that's a real test of faith because you might not have it all right let's move on let's talk about ownership because this is actually even below generosity the difference between ownership and stewardship because God anoints and blesses people who realize that what you have is really just on loan um you know the first sentence of purpose-- Driven Life is it's not about you if I ever write a book on the stewardship of Life your money your talent your opportunities uh your time uh the first line will be what you think you own is really on loan because it wasn't years before you got here it's not going to be years after you die God's just loaning it to you for 80 years and then it's going to go to somebody else and so you're not really an owner you're you're a steward and you say in here uh we're not owners of anything God owns everything God wants us to be good stewards of everything he put in our hands and then this is an interesting statement stewardship produces respon ibility we need to be found faithful talk about that well I think that the same thing that happened to me when I said that you cannot give God I said God owns the business well that's not too expensive yeah I I I think most of us say that and I said it and I know God talked us to say it doesn't cost anything yeah no he said well what does that look like and for us it meant that we wanted to be stewards and so our family is signed off on our of our stock we can't touch it it's a tree God owns a tree we only receive the fruit from which we earn we all have to work to get fruit but God owns a tree and by the way I can't find one negative thing about being a steart but I can tell you a thousand things wrong with being an owner W there's no end to what can happen if we became owners our children our grandchildren a great grandchild there's a lot of problem in ownership yeah I remember when I was in high school I in college and I said God this is your car you own it it's not mine and then uh you know a guy ran into the side and T-Bone me and dinged it all in I go well God what are you going to do about your car not my car so well you if you want me to drive around in a dinged up car it's your car that's fine but uh okay let's that talking about the Next Generation uh let's talk about leaving a legacy because God anoints and blesses people who live in light of Eternity you talked about this earlier living in light of Eternity you say one of the things that caught my attention in the book you said you you say the questions that we ask in our 80s and in our 90s uh should probably we should start asking them at the beginning of our our lives so at your age what do you want to say to these people about that well I say there's it's never too early to think about to end game we are going to have an end game and what does that look like does it look like you're a billionaire but everything is messed up in your family you have no family values all sorts of things my mother and dad didn't die with a lot in the bank but they died with a marriage that forever that lasted forever children that served God grandchildren so we all want to leave with a legacy and we have to start today what kind of Legacy we are and we have to invest and give time and be generous to our family and so that's what's most important to me I would rather not have Hobby Lobby at all if I lost one of my members of my family so it's more important for us to see our family serve the Lord and so we want a legacy of serving God and God Honors that um here's another quote from your book we all want to pass on pass belong the best of us to our kids and you said that the part of the Legacy that you want to pass on is the joy of giving and I love this quote can we teach our children that giving to God's causes is really in his eyes the key to successes both large and small yes I think that's true because in our giving to others and giving as we do to missions and and to promote the Bible we're seeing things that will last forever it's Eternal so we want to commit Our Lives to those things that are Eternal man so God's and God's word so those are the two things that if you follow our family you'll find that 90% of what we do will be in those two areas uh you know the only thing that's going to last forever as he just said is people one of two places heaven or hell and God's word Heaven and Earth will pass away but my word will never pass away um you quote the famous last line of CT studs poem who gave up everything to follow Christ very influential um leader in in England uh and it goes only one life will soon be passed and only What's Done For Christ will last and that came from my mother when I was growing up in the big box deals I'd come home say hey Mom I'm a store manager one of the youngest and she says what are you doing for God hey hey Mom I'm a district manager I've got the biggest District at the youngest age yeah what are you doing for God I could go home and say hey Mom I'm the president of the United States she says yes Dave but what are you doing for the Lord well clearly uh God's anointing is is on your life um the success of the of the um uh Hobby Lobby and we'll come back later sometime and talk about how you took on the issue of religious liberty for America and on behalf of all Christians thank you for that um that was a big deal big big deal uh because willing to take that to the Supreme Court and court and if you had lost you would have lost Hobby Lobby the the fines would have been tens of millions and millions of dollars the fines was when with the number of employees we had it would have been $1.3 million a day a day that would be the fine correct yeah and they they did it on behalf of all Christians and and one in Supreme Court which was an amazing thing um they don't ever talk about this but Hobby Lobby and the Green family and their Foundation have helped Ministries all around the world including Saddleback Church this is the organization that for $25 million bought Rancho Capistrano and gave it to our church so let's let's thank God thank God for thank you Dave thank you buddy thank you Barbara yeah Rancho capestrano better be standing up right now amen you know let me let me end with this last quote I love this quote from your book My Hope and prayer for this book is that it ignites a movement of people who understand their place in history and are excited to make this place better for future Generations that's great thank you daveid green David Green God bless you thank you man love you so much friends as I said that's exhibit a of an anointed life he's not a pastor he's not a missionary he's not a not a Bible teacher he's a businessman but he said God's going to be number one in every are of my life and as a result when you have the anointing of God on your business you're going to be uh successful now let me close in just the last two minutes about the second area and that's your body you might write this down when God anoints your body it brings health it brings health in in your body over and over again anointing for healing is one of the most common practices in the entire Bible uh not only did Jesus do it everywhere he went he modeled it for us um he authorized his followers to do the same to anoint with oil as a symbol of God's anointing and to pray the prayer of faith for people who are sick Jesus did it the Bible tells us Jesus went into every village in town preaching teaching and healing one-third of his ministry was healthare helping people he cares not just about your soul going to heaven he cares about your mind education and he cares about your body your health um and Jesus as I said not only modeled anointing with oil as a symbol of God's blessing but he actually taught the disciples and commanded us to do so also look here on the screen the ible says in Mark 6:13 that his followers the disciples Anointed with oil those who were sick and people were healed now I I need to explain to you very quickly there are three kinds of healing three kinds of excuse me three kinds of illnesses um now there are a lot of illness in the world is simply because we make bad choices if I eat wrong I don't exercise I don't take care of my body I'm going to reap what I sow if I get sick uh I have too much sugar sugar and I get diabetes or whatever that's my fault and a lot of the a lot of the illnesses we bring on ourselves from not enough rest too much stress not eating right exercise things like that but the Bible talks about three kinds of illnesses the first is for learning God allows illness to teach us things that we would never learn any other way and so some illness actually is allowed in our lives by God when God wants to teach us something and one of the many verses on this this is Psalm 119:71 Psalm 119:71 here on the screen says this it was good for me to be afflicted so I could learn your truth okay here's a true confession time how many of you have learned some things in life through pain can I see your hands yeah that's 100% of us in fact some things we only learn through pain and David who wrote The Lord as my shepherd said it was good for me to be afflicted that I might learn your statutes I've learned a lot of things through illnesses in my life so sometimes God allows an illness for learning okay the second way reason for illness is actually for death you say well that's not a very positive one well here's the what I'm saying if every illness you had was healed you'd never go to heaven and neither would anybody else so there is a sickness unto death and the purpose is to end your life here so you can go on to the real life in the Ever After uh you will only get the sickness son to death one time in your life does that make sense okay you're you're not going to get it over and over and over the the sickness on if you get well it wasn't the sickness unto death okay but there is an illness that every one of us will get otherwise we'd all stay on Earth thank God I don't have to stay on Earth for eternity whether there s suffering sorrow sickness sadness stress r Wars violence racial Prejudice you know all of the different isms in the world that put people down thank God we don't have to stay here so there is a sickness under death When God says it's time for you to come to be with me and then there's a Third Kind sickness for learning sickness for death and sickness for bringing glory to God bringing glory to God Jesus talked about this third kind of uh illness or sickness in John chapter 11 he says it in verse 4 John 11:4 Jesus says this uh they brought a sick man to Jesus and he said now the purpose of his illness is not for death that's the second kind sickness under death instead the purpose of this illness is so that God will receive Glory from this situation you say how in the world can God get Glory from my sickness from my illness well there's two different ways one is you get healed and and there's a miracle and there's a testimony of God's healing power the other way God can get glory is you're not healed but you with strong moral character and commitment and Faith stay true to Christ in spite of all your pain if you know anything about Christian history the greatest Saints of all times were the ones who endured basically chronic pain throughout their entire lives it shaped their character in such a way that they were far deeper than the shallow people who never had much pain in their life so God can get glory in your illness either way through a miraculous healing and who cares if he does it through medicine or a miracle I don't care uh they're both healings of God and the other way is if you're not healed but you stay true to God and you let that suffering deepen you build your character grow your soul develop your dependence on God become a woman of depth become a man of character that brings glory to God too now we know that when we pray for people not everybody gets healed not everybody I've prayed for gets healed why I don't know when I get to heaven we'll know that's in God's book we know that God determines when people get healed he determines how people get healed and he determines where people get his job is to figure out the when where and how and God has all of eternity to answer his promises but my job and your job is to do what he commanded to to do and over and over in scripture we're commanded to pray for each other and we're commanded to pray for each other's healings and the Bible tells us in James 5:14 to16 that we are to pray for each other and anoint each other with oil as a symbol of God's anointing look at this verse here in the screen because we're going to do this after this service James 5:14 says this if you're sick if you're sick ask your church leaders to pray for you literally Elders ask your church leaders to pray for you and anoint you with oil in the name of the Lord now there's nothing magical or mystical about the oil there's nothing Supernatural nothing uh properties that make it it's just oil it's olive oil but it is the faith anoint with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer that is offered in faith will bring healing notice not the oil but the prayer in faith will bring healing and the Lord will restore your health he says and pray for each other so that you will be healed the prayer of a Godly person is powerful and effective now in our church we have 10 Elders in this church and with about 30,000 people showing up at all of our campuses on the weekend that's not enough people to pray for you so I have trained hundreds and hundreds of our leaders in our church to pray for you and we're going to do that today inside your program after this service I want you to pull out this little card it says my prayer needs I don't want you to miss out on this blessing and I want to ask you to fill this out and after the service take it out at every one of our campuses we have leaders that I have personally trained in how to pray for the sick and how to pray for your health by the way that word where it says if you're sick that's not the normal word in the Bible for sick it's actually a much broader term that means any major problem in your life it means any major weakness in your life you could need financial healing you could need relational healing in your in a in a relationship you could need mental healing or emotional healing so it's not just talking about your body but he says if you're sick and any area of your life that needs healing where where what's out of whack in your life what's out of Health in your life maybe your career maybe your business maybe you're schooling whatever I I want you to take this card and here's what you do you write down your name I don't even need to know your last name cuz it's it's this between you and God just write your first name Bob or Sue or whatever then you check one of these or you can write down what you would specifically like to be prayed for now don't write me a long sentence here just write a phrase I need prayer for this or or this a few words at the most a sentence and here's what I'm going to ask you to do after this service you walk outside here at the Lake Forest campus I think there's nine different stations I think we had about 20 different lines going on in the last service and you walk you find somebody who's got a badge on at every campus it'll be a different color but this says Saddleback Church this means I've trained them in how to pray for the sick and I've trained them in how to anoint you with oil and they you walk up to them and you hand them your card you don't have to say anything and they say oh hi Bob I see You'd like prayer for this can I pray for you as Pastor Rick has trained me to do then they're going to pray this prayer you're going to be given this when you're finished this is a prayer that I've written everybody's going to be praying the same prayer and the reason why is because every sentence in this prayer that I wrote is backed up by a different scripture in the Bible everything here is biblical it's not my opinion it's not my attitude it's just the word of God uh written out and they will you know say let's pray together they're going to read this prayer over you they will anoint you with oil and then they're going to give you this prayer and you can take this home and hang it on your uh you know on your refrigerator whoever so you know what's going on I don't want you to miss out on this blessing a thousand years before you were born God knew that on this day you would be listening to me at Saddleback Church remember I said you have not because you ask not you can walk away from this service and not get any blessing out of it at all or you can go out to somebody a leader in our church who's been trained to pray a prayer of faith for you you for healing in your area and to anoint you with oil I want you to fill this out uh right now I want you to listen to a song and then I'm going to come back and close with a blessing and we'll dismiss father it's amazing that many people will be within inches of a miracle and will walk away from it out of fear I pray nobody will leave here missing out on an opportunity to receive your anointing your blessing your power whether it's in their business or in their body whether it's in their family or their finances wherever they need you know what that needs is and you are a healing God whether physical relational Financial mental emotional or any other area you've brought us to this moment the question is will we trust you I pray for all of those who will now go outside and let someone pray for their healing to anoint them with oil to do what you told us to do lord it's all in your hands we're just going to do what you tell us to do as an Evidence of trust and I ask your blessing on every person who takes advantage of this today in the name of the father and the Son and the Holy SP [Music] for [Music] o [Music] spirit and everybody said amen God bless you everybody go on outside thanks for checking out this week's message on YouTube we would love to get you connected with our online community there's three easy ways to get you involved first learn about belonging to our church family by taking class 101 online Second you can join an online small group or a local Home Group in your area and third check out our Facebook group to engage with our online community throughout the week to take these next steps visit saddleback.com online or shoot me an email at online saddleback.com I hope to hear from you soon [Music]